1926 NSWRFL season

The 1926 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the nineteenth season of Sydney’s top-level rugby league club competition, Australia’s first. Nine teams from across the city contested during the season, which culminated in South Sydney’s victory over Sydney University in the premiership final.[1]

1926 New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams9
Premiers South Sydney (6th title)
Minor premiers South Sydney (6th title)
Matches played75
Points scored2009
Top points scorer(s) Jack Courtney (104)
Top try-scorer(s) Benny Wearing (14)

Season summary

Rugby league had been going through a period of declining popularity. The “first past the post” method had resulted in a number of seasons where the premiership was decided before the end of scheduled matches, killing interest during the closing rounds. Falling crowd numbers led to the NSWRFL making a substantial loss in 1925, forcing changes to be made. For the 1926 season a finals series was introduced to maintain interest in the competition.[2] The Premiership would therefore be determined amongst the leading four teams.

The rules concerning the play-the-ball were also changed. Only two players could play at the ball, with one player from each side being allowed to stand immediately behind, and all other players having to stay behind that second man until the ball was heeled. Previously any number of players could play at the ball, and by 1925 play-the-balls had become a real mess.

The rules were changed so that when a ball was forced in goal by the defending side play restarted with a line drop-out rather than a scrum.

These changes combined with the use of multiple reserve balls turned rugby league into a faster and much more attractive spectacle, and the fans returned.

Teams
  • Balmain, formed on January 23, 1908, at Balmain Town Hall
  • Eastern Suburbs, formed on January 24, 1908, at Paddington Town Hall
  • Glebe, formed on January 9, 1908
  • Newtown, formed on January 14, 1908
  • North Sydney, formed on February 7, 1908
  • South Sydney, formed on January 17, 1908, at Redfern Town Hall
  • St. George, formed on November 8, 1920, at Kogarah School of Arts
  • Western Suburbs, formed on February 4, 1908
  • University, formed in 1919 at Sydney University
Balmain
19th season
Ground: Birchgrove Oval
Coach: Alf Fraser
Captain: Reg Latta		 Eastern Suburbs
19th season
Ground: RAS Showground
Captains:Arthur Oxford, Les Steel		 Glebe
19th season
Ground: Wentworth Park
Captain: Frank Burge, Tom McGrath
Newtown
19th season
Ground: Marrickville Oval
Coach: Albert "Ricketty" Johnston
Captain: Charles Kell
North Sydney
19th season
Ground: North Sydney Oval
Captain: Leo O'Connor		 St. George
6th season
Ground: Earl Park
Captain-Coach: Arnold Traynor
South Sydney
19th season
Ground: Sydney Cricket Ground
Coach: Howard Hallett
Captain: Alf Blair
University
7th season
Coach: Bill Kelly
Captain: A.S. Lane		 Western Suburbs
19th season
Ground: Pratten Park
Coach:
Captain: Gordon Stettler

Ladder
The geographical locations of the teams that contested the 1926 premiership across Sydney.
Team Pld W D L B PF PA PD Pts
1 South Sydney 1614022318146+17232
2 Glebe 169162188168+2023
3 Eastern Suburbs 169162207192+1523
4 Sydney University 169072198217-1922
5 Western Suburbs 168082252227+2520
6 Newtown 167092189223-3418
7 North Sydney 167092227271-4418
8 Balmain 1660102187184+316
9 St. George 1620142169307-1388

Finals

At one stage in the second half of the season, University had been sitting just one win behind reigning premiers South Sydney. But five successive losses at the back end of the season saw them fall to fourth on the ladder. This though was enough to secure their only ever finals berth in their eighteen-year history. South Sydney for the second season straight showed consistent good form, and in the end comfortably won the minor premiership.

In the semi-finals, both University and South Sydney comfortably defeated their opponents to progress to the final.

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
4 September 1926 - Sydney Cricket Ground
 
 
 Glebe 3
 
18 September 1926 - Agricultural Showground
 
 University 29
 
 South Sydney 11
 
11 September 1926 - Sydney Cricket Ground
 
 University 5
 
 South Sydney 21
 
 
 Eastern Suburbs 5
 

Final
South Sydney Position Sydney University
Alan RightonFBHubert Finn
Alby CarrWGTom Barry
Vic LawrenceCEFrank O'Rourke
Harry FinchCEPaddy McCormack
Reg WilliamsWGMartin Cunningham
Alf Blair (c)FEA.S. Lane (c)
Frank BroganHBEd Wynter
Arch ThompsonPREdward Ryan
Harry CavanoughHKFrank Benning
George TreweekPRJim Ward
Edward RootSRSammy Ogg
Alf O'ConnorSRBill Flanagan
David WatsonLKJohn McIntyre
Howard HallettCoachBill Kelly

The 1926 season was the most successful of the eighteen seasons between the wars in which University competed in the top Sydney grade. This may have had to do with their coach Bill Kelly or their new trainer, the former Kangaroo Sid Pearce. Or perhaps they benefitted from that season’s play-the-ball rule change which initially resulted in a cleaner and faster game that suited the lighter and quicker Students. Whatever the reason they won their first seven games.

However the loss of their centre Frank O'Rourke to a broken hand, saw them slip in the final rounds to finish fourth. The play-off system and South Sydney’s “right-of-challenge” as minor-premiers required University to beat the powerful Glebe side and then South Sydney twice to take the title.

In the semi-final against Glebe, University regained their early season form and trounced Glebe by 29–3.

O'Rourke returned for the Final and lined up with state representatives Hubert “Butt” Finn, Jim McIntyre and Alby Lane in front of 20,000 at the Royal Agricultural Society Grounds.

In the opening twenty minutes University had three opportunities to score but poor finishing let them down. After withstanding the Students’ attack Souths responded with eleven points of their own by the half-time break. Early in the second half University’s centre McCormack hit back with an intercept try to pull the deficit back to 11–5 however the Rabbitohs defence held for the remainder of the game and they claimed the premiership.

Referee Webby Neill, himself a former premiership winning Rabbitoh, sent off Souths’ Edward Root during the match.

South Sydney 11 (Tries: Brogan, Finch, Watson. Goal: Blair)

University 5 (Tries: Paddy McCormack. Goal: Jim McIntyre)

gollark: I think some people here like just passing through the drives to the OS and letting ZFS or whatever manage them.
gollark: RAID 1 is mirroring the same data onto every drive. You probably don't want to mirror to 12 different drives.
gollark: <@201025106422661120> We'll inevitably end up no deal while being told everything is fine.
gollark: <@90689480716976128> I mean, you could just have all of those volumes be in a single folder and zip that.
gollark: Have you tried with backplane and without VM?

References
  1. Premiership Roll of Honour at rl1908.com Archived October 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  2. Middleton, David (30 September 2013). "Ten of the most dominant seasons in rugby league history from historian David Middleton". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.